Altar’ und Götter liegen
Zerstückelt am boden umher.
Anastasius Grün (Von Auersperg).
“Willingly would he pray in temples, but he finds only ruins. Altars and Gods lie shattered upon the earth around!”
XXXIX. “Thy soul shall covet but of Locrian power
And intellect the glory! Beaconing men
To happiness be thine—still Freedom’s tower,
Still making every scowling Despot cower!”
Νέμει γὰρ Ἀτρέκεια πόλιν Λοκρῶν
Ζεφυρίων: μέλει τέ σφισι Καλλιόπα,
Καὶ χάλκεος Ἄρης.
Pind. Olymp. x.
“For Truth doth govern in the Zephyrian Locri’s city, and Calliope is their care, and likewise brazen Mars.” A magnificent eulogy is conveyed here in a few words. Ἀτρέκεια in the original has the force both of Truth and Justice. No people of antiquity were more renowned for the excellence of their institutions than the Locri, who were the first to make use of written laws. (Strabo, lib. 6.) Calliope is used by synecdoche for the Muses, to whom the Locri were greatly devoted, having invented the Locric harmony which was subsequently imitated by Sappho and Anacreon. (Athenæus, lib. xiv. et xv.) Their warlike character upon fitting occasions was also terribly displayed, 10,000 Locri having put to flight 130,000 invading Crotonians on the banks of the river Sagra—a fact which, at first doubted as impossible, was afterwards strictly verified, and passed into a proverb. (Strabo, lib. 6.) The epithet “brazen” applied here to Mars arises from the singular fact that iron did not enter into the composition of the Grecian arms, which were all of brass. (Pausanias, in Laconicis, and Homer passim.) The magnificent region of Locris was situated at the foot of Parnassus; and the splendid pre-eminence of its inhabitants in arts and arms, with their prodigious victory over the Crotonians, appears to justify their comparison with England.